The Greens have clawed back ground with the Gillard government to protect big tracts of Tasmanian native forests in an inter-government deal to achieve environmental peace on the island.
Under the deal, 430,000 hectares of forests, which for decades have been the scenes of some of Australia’s most bitter and protracted logging disputes, will get stronger protection from Canberra.
The last-minute changes, made after protracted negotiations, stung the forest industry, which labelled the deal bitterly disappointing .
When the $276 million peace package was initialled a fortnight ago, the Tasmanian Premier, Lara Giddings, left open the prospect of logging in the forests if there was no other option, and the Greens withheld their backing.
The Prime Minister, Julia Gillard, said yesterday in finalising the agreement there had been a chance to provide ”clear, immediate protection” for the 430,000 hectares while still meeting industry’s need for wood supply.
Among forests to be immediately preserved are tall old growth eucalypts fringing the Tasmanian Wilderness World Heritage Area, some of Australia’s largest temperate rainforest in the Tarkine and the contentious Wielangta forest.
Under the changes, the federal government will strike a legislatively backed conservation agreement with the state protecting these forests and if necessary compensate loggers to stay out of them.
The Greens leader, Bob Brown, said he told Ms Gillard the Greens would not accept the initial package, which failed to deliver on earlier agreements in the long-running peace talks between industry and environment groups.
”I’m now looking forward to working with the federal government to get the World Heritage outcomes here,” Senator Brown said.
Senator Brown faced the threat of being bankrupted out of the Senate in 2009 over legal bills for his failed fight to stop logging in Wielangta to protect threatened species.
”Well, Wielangta now seems to be moving to a national park,” he said.
The total 430,000 hectares is now to be formally assessed and legislated into reserves in a process likely to take at least a year.
These national parks and reserves, together with changes to wood supply agreements, will have to navigate a hostile conservative state parliamentary upper house.
Ms Giddings said if they did not then Tasmania would not get $100 million of regional development assistance, nor more than $35 million to look after the new protected areas.
But the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania was angered by the changes, which also drop a legislated guarantee for wood supply to a key veneer mill in the state’s south.
The chief executive of the Forest Industries Association of Tasmania, Terry Edwards, said it was a cynical sellout and he could only hope the legislative council would see the folly of pandering to the Greens.
The Coalition forests spokesman, Richard Colbeck, said the deal capitulated to green groups by cutting in half Tasmania’s $1.4 billion forest industry
Doubt remains over the position of the major timber player Gunns Limited. Its decision to stop native forest logging opened the door for the peace talks, but it is still seeking a reported $100 million to have its contracts paid out.
Its shares are today due to emerge from a trading halt called because of uncertainty over the federal-state package, but Ms Giddings said a deal between the state government and Gunns remained unresolved.
”I hope in this next week that I might be able to make some further announcements around processes that we’ll be engaging in with Gunns,” she said.
